RockAuto is excited to announce the addition of US Motor Works (USMW) - Professional Series parts to our catalog! USMW specializes in Fuel Delivery and Cooling products for the automotive aftermarket, and has over 50 years of manufacturing experience. Their top focus is creating parts you can depend on - when you buy US Motor Works, you are investing in technology and workmanship that has been meticulously engineered, manufactured from the highest quality materials and thoroughly tested to ensure accuracy and reliability. USMW has ISO 9000:2015 quality certification.

USMW Professional Series Max Cooling Kits (found in the RockAuto.com catalog under "Water Pump & Fan Clutch Assembly" in the "Cooling System" category) are unique, combining two parts into one part number – the water pump and fan clutch – to optimize repair success and efficiency. Reinstalling a worn fan clutch on a new water pump can damage and destroy the new water pump, and vice-versa. The interconnected nature of these two components are often overlooked during the replacement process, but the Max Cooling Kit prevents such mistakes by restoring the cooling system to maximum efficiency in one step.

USMW Professional Series Fuel Pumps and Fuel Pump & Housing Assemblies are designed and tested to meet or exceed OE specifications and use upgraded materials to ensure performance and longevity. For example, they feature upgraded palladium silver fuel sensors – palladium silver is resistant to corrosion from ethanol and ethanol blended fuels to ensure long life. USMW fuel pumps are available for a huge number of vehicles, everything from a '77 Porsche 911 to an '87 Nissan 300ZX to a '97 Buick Riviera to a '17 Ram 3500.

Find US Motor Works products for your specific vehicle in the "Cooling System" and "Fuel & Air" categories of the RockAuto.com catalog, all at reliably low prices!

RockAuto now offers vehicle horns from FIAMM Components! FIAMM is the world’s largest manufacturer of both Original Equipment (OE) and Aftermarket vehicle horns, producing over 40 million horns annually. FIAMM Horns are OE on many well-known vehicle makes including Ford, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Kia and more. RockAuto is proud to carry FIAMM’s OE Replacement Horns as well as their Accessory Horns.

OE Replacement
Successfully replace your vehicle's horn with a FIAMM OE Replacement Horn. These horns are designed to provide a lightweight, compact size, yet powerful sound. They feature corrosion resistant steel housings that provide crisp, clean tones and are offered in both high and low note versions. OE Replacement Horns also come as Kits, which include all of the necessary hardware, wiring and connectors to complete the job.

Accessory
FIAMM also offers accessory horns, including their Freeway Blaster, Two Trumpet Riviera, El Grande and Ultimate Blast Series Horns. FIAMM Accessory Horns offer a louder blast compared to OE, ranging from 128 dB (El Grande) to 130 dB (Freeway Blaster) to 135 dB (Two Trumpet Riviera and Ultimate Blast Compact Series).

Find a range of FIAMM Horns for your specific vehicle under Horn in the “Electrical” category of the RockAuto.com catalog. See additional horns under the "Tools & Universal Parts" tab in the "Electrical" category. Visit pages to listen to audio samples of each OE Replacement and Accessory horn's tone.

B15U.com, a Nissan Sentra forum since 2005, is an online community dedicated to Nissan Sentra B15U and B16U owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, troubleshooting, turbo upgrades, maintenance and more!

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact marketing@rockauto.com.

About ten years ago, and in need of cheap transportation, I bought a 1999 Saturn SL1 that was advertised as needing a clutch. After making the deal, I limped the car home with the clutch slipping all the way. After spending a solid weekend tearing everything down and installing the new clutch, I was having trouble re-installing the clutch slave cylinder assembly. It was impossible to get it into position! I ordered a new one and installed it with no problem.

Only after the entire project was complete did I realize that it should have been a much easier task. The old slave cylinder was stuck in a partially extended position and was keeping the original, and perfectly functional, clutch from engaging all along!

Matt in Illinois

Clutch Slave Cylinder in an extended position

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for a while!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and if you would like a RockAuto T-Shirt (please let us know your shirt size) or Hat if we publish your story. See the T-Shirts and Hats under Tools & Universal Parts in the RockAuto catalog. The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

Sodium sulfate, an ingredient in laundry detergent, is created from which recycled car part?

A. airbags
B. car batteries
C. catalytic converters
D. all the above

Answer below

I recently challenged myself by driving through the remnants of a hurricane in a Mazda 3 that I had rented at the Atlanta airport. I was surprised to find that Alamo's lowest cost rental was equipped with rain-sensing windshield wipers. Only the most sudden and severe deluges sent my hand flying to the windshield wiper switch, otherwise the rain sensor handled wiper speed. Driving a car with rain sensing wipers is still a novelty to me personally, but these systems have become increasingly common over the last couple of decades and are now routinely repaired.

Various Rain Sensors

The most common system design places the rain sensor up against the windshield glass next to the rearview mirror. The rain sensor's light emitting diode projects infrared light into the glass at an angle. Some of the light is reflected off the outer surface of the windshield back to a photo diode in the rain sensor. If the photo diode detects less light bouncing back, then the computer knows water droplets must be dispersing the light, and it turns on the windshield wipers. Wiper speed is increased further if the photo diode continues to detect less and less reflected infrared light.

The diodes and other components in a rain sensor will eventually fail, but before replacing the rain sensor make sure the sensor's field of view is clear. The computer can recognize and compensate for a slow build up of dirt on the windshield, but a squished bug or a chip in the glass may distort the infrared light beam too much. Debris or glass damage in the darkly tinted area near the rearview mirror may go unnoticed by the driver.

Rain sensors are often held tightly against the windshield glass with a clear adhesive gel that may change color, tear loose or otherwise deteriorate after years of extreme temperature changes and exposure to the sun. The gel is typically designed to be removable with careful tugging. Some people in online forums report successfully replacing failing gel with some other adhesive such as clear silicone, but using an all-purpose adhesive can make it more difficult to remove the rain sensor if that becomes necessary sometime down the road.

Find replacement "Rain Sensors" for your specific vehicle listed under "Electrical" in the RockAuto.com catalog. In the same section, you may also see "Rain Sensor Kit, For Windshield Glass." These kits provide the correct materials needed to replace failing adhesive gel and/or to install an old sensor on a new windshield.

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

To read more of Toms articles, click this link and choose from story titles on the Newsletter Archives page.

I purchased this 2008 Mazda 3 for my daughter as a high school graduation present. The car did not run and needed a ton of work before it was ready to turn over to her. What started out as a bad head gasket turned into an over the winter project that included replacing the cylinder head, spark plugs, transmission fluid, gasket and filter, oil pan gasket, oil filter housing, front and rear suspension components, new half shaft, strut assemblies, brake pads, headlamp and fog light bulbs along with power window switches. All the parts were purchased at RockAuto and now my garage fridge is covered with your Collector Series magnets!

As you can see from the photo all the hard work was worth it, the car turned out splendid and she loves it. Thanks for making all the parts available so a shade tree mechanic like me can put a car back on the road that a teenage girl would be happy to drive.

Paul in Washington (RockAuto customer for over three years)

Share Your Hard Work
Do you purchase parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto would like to give you the opportunity to have your car or truck possibly featured in one (or occasionally more) of our publications such as the monthly newsletter, collector magnets, RockAuto social media or other commercial use. New, old, import, domestic, daily driver, trailer queen, classic, antique, we want to see them all! Please email flamur@RockAuto.com with the vehicle history, interesting details, your favorite images (tips for taking pictures of your car) and what parts from RockAuto you have used.

Sodium sulfate, an ingredient in laundry detergent, is created from which recycled car part?

A. airbags
Answer B. car batteries (More than 99% of a dead lead acid car battery, both conventional and AGM, is recycled. Recycled plastic and lead go into new batteries. Sulfuric acid is converted to sodium sulfate.)
C. catalytic converters
D. all the above

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